best-practices

This is the 1st of the three articles that discuss about strategies for new project managers to function effectively. The three steps are; understanding top ten reasons of a project failure and how to proactively plan to avoid them, how to have a solid communication plan and how to manage changes. The 1st article covers top ten reasons of a project failure and how to proactively plan in order to avoid them.

Project Conference 2009 continues through this week in Phoenix, AZ.  As Microsoft prepares for the release of Project 2010, it’s a good time to reflect on some additional best practices that project managers should keep in mind when using their current version of Microsoft Project.
Know the Limitations of Critical Path Methodology – CPM was developed [...]

With the kick-off of Project Conference 2009 in Phoenix, AZ this week Microsoft has invited some customers and partners to get a sneak peek at Microsoft Project 2010.  I have been managing projects and teaching classes on this tool for quite a long time and have had a chance to read about some of the [...]

My esteemed colleague Natalie Udo’s post a few weeks ago, “What is a Project Manager?” started me thinking about what are the elements which make us successful in the business. And hopefully, I’m reinforcing Kimberly Wiefling’s recent posts on what are the keys to success as a project leader… and not being too redundant – Thanks, [...]

In my last blog I mentioned that I recently received a job offer at a new company.  This started me thinking about what is my plan for getting started at the new job, so today I figured I’d share my thoughts and maybe it will help you or maybe you’ll have some feedback for me.

Technorati [...]

Good Requirement Management is perhaps the most important factor in many projects’ successes or failures.  Some research had mentioned that it can be as high as 65%.   Requirement specification greatly affects the scope of the project, which in turn affects the resource and time required.  In this blog, I will share my thoughts and [...]

Every program manager has run into the same situation at some point in their career. You put together your program plan with lots of spreadsheets, Gantt charts, requirements documents, resource requirements, risk management plan, etc. You present the plan to management and everything goes reasonably well until you start to talk about risks and how [...]

It sort of pains me to even have to write about #4 on my list of mandatory practices (see Tuesday’s blog):
“4. Testing of every requirement (using the RM tool to track progress)”
because I always think “how else would you test?”. But perhaps that’s because I’m originally from an aerospace background where we [...]

That requirements will change is a given. How you plan for and manage that change is crucial. Think about what you want to accomplish with your change management, what you want to protect yourself from, what you want to avoid, and then put in place the practice that makes sense for you.
Having a [...]

There is a set of SW practices that I consider non-negotiable, and they begin with 2 that are requirements-related:
1. Written, reviewed, approved requirements
2. A requirements baseline, implemented with a requirements management (RM) tool
In my last company, getting these done in a way that was accepted by engineers and management alike did require a pinch of “writing the [...]

At my last company we took pride in the amount of work we were able to accomplish with a very small team – software of high quality and releases on tight schedules. The high quality and the responsiveness to customers’ demand for new features kept our customer support expenses low and gave us good [...]

I was listening to an NPR talk show segment about customer service last week.  It was mainly about being on hold, the friendliness (or unfriendliness) of the support givers, etc.  There was a quote from a customer service person who said that they were rude because the customer service expense “sucked out whatever profit they [...]

Oh yeah, more anecdotal data tells me silicon valley wants SO MUCH MORE for so much less!

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In the past, both here and in my own newsletters (Diamonds to You) I’ve written about the fact that although there is no I in teams, there certainly is a ME.  I want to continue with that theme.  I am quoting myself from my November Newsletter.
Here in the United States, we have a long history [...]

Michael Hammer, in his initial article on re-engineering, evaluated the historic patterns of organizing work. His assertion was that in the postwar period, entry-level people with basic skills were easy to come by, but experienced professionals were not. As a result, businesses pulled apart work into small, repeatable tasks, and focused information at the top [...]

One of the most useful things I have learned leading teams is that pictures are a very effective way to help people understand complex ideas. I am sure you have all heard that there are auditory learners and visual learners, but in my experience, a good visual is much better than audio for most people. [...]

If you are like most project managers, you wish you had a better real-time handle on the progress of your project so you could predict when you will finish or when a change is needed in order to stay on track. I have used a simple yet powerful method that is applicable to most projects [...]

I’m sure you have had a chance to write a vision or mission statement at one time or another in your career. In my 25 years in high-tech corporate life, I’ve seen hundreds. Unfortunately, most of them were poorly written because the authors failed to capture the true goal of a vision statement, and missed [...]

The accelerated pace of globalization has made the need for virtual teams essential. The list of benefits that corporate executives tout to stockholders and channel partners is accelerated time to market, customer intimacy, resource utilization, employee retention and cost efficiency, to name a few. The challenge lies at the feet of project managers around the [...]

One input I received while conducting focus groups and interviews about what managers want from the PMI NorCal Symposium 2008 is to hear about companies like Hewlett-Packard.  As an alumnus myself (22 years at HP), I appreciate the unique contributions established by Bill [Hewlett]and Dave [Packard].  I still remember the frankness [...]

Back in the very old days (early 80’s), I was on a team (of 24, I think) that delivered a successful software system on time, on budget, and with every feature the customer had requested.  The schedule had been tight, 18 months from inception to use, as I recall. 
This happened right in the middle of [...]